Wood joined the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in 1995, at a time when that court had few other liberals and no other women. She’s a Clinton appointee praised for her ability to build consensus with conservative colleagues but also known for taking persuasive stands on issues before the court. And for years, her name has shown up again and again on the short list of likely Supreme Court nominees. Wood was described at her induction ceremony as “a judge with a broader horizon than any who has ever sat in this or in most American courts” – a reputation earned after time as a State Department lawyer, a University of Chicago professor and an accomplished student of the oboe and three foreign languages.